The Hitch, a documentary by Kristoffer Seland Hellesmark looking back on the life of British writer and journalist Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011).
Hitchens was born in Portsmouth, England and during his early career worked for a number of small magazines before moving to the United States in 1981. It was during this period that he would hone his skills as an investigative journalist and make a name for himself as being considered on the best intellectual writers of the early 21st century. Though expressing his discoveries and thoughts in publication earned a lot of controversy as they often focused on famous figures in the realms of religion, art, war, politics and literature.
In the late 20th century Hitchens was widely seen as a “leftist” writer as we see in the documentary “The Hitch”, however, he gained notoriety for lambasting both sides of the spectrum in his work which often led to getting death threats from those who inevitably did not agree with him.
It was 9/11 that marked a tonal shift in his work with publications such as the 2002 “Why Orwell Matters” and “Thomas Jefferson: Author of America” (2005); stepping up his rile of the political left while at the same time supporting both the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. The Hitch documentary covers many of the most important moments in the writer's life including his tragic death of Oesophageal cancer in 2011.
